The combustion engine is not going anywhere at BMW. Instead, the Germans are focusing on developing both for the 3 Series.
The next BMW 3 Series isn't too far away. But when it lands in 2027, it will still be powered by a combustion engine.
The Germans intend to drive on two tracks. This way, the car will be available with both electric and combustion engines, even though it will be built on the new Neue Klasse platform.
The brand confirms this in an interview with Automobilwoche .
BMW points out that the decision ensures 'technological openness'. The Germans may not be able to afford anything else. To this day, the 3 Series still accounts for 30 percent of the brand's sales.
But it won't actually be the first time that BMW has electrified the 3. Since 2022, the current generation of the car, called the G20, has been available as a pure electric car on the Chinese market.
The combustion engine survives at BMW
A car that the Germans call the i3. Not to be confused with the i3, which went out of production here in Europe in 2022. At that time, the brand had built 250,000 copies of the car.
The electric G20 only differs from the combustion engine version in terms of the powertrain. The cars have the same interior and the same all-wheel drive – what BMW calls xDrive.
However, the Germans will not build anything other than the electric 3 Series. At least not in Germany. The last combustion engine was built at BMW's factories in Germany in 2023.
The shift in BMW's production plans doesn't come as a big surprise, however. As early as November 2020, management openly stated that they would move production of all 8- and 12-cylinder engines from Munich to Hams Hall in England.
The smaller combustion engines will eventually be built in the Austrian city of Steyr, an hour's drive from where the Magna Steyr factory builds the current BMW Z4/Toyota Supra with BMW's three-liter inline-six.
Like Toyota, BMW does not believe that electric cars are the only solution when it comes to future passenger cars.
In fact, the Japanese have made it clear in a new interview that both the manual transmission and the gasoline engine 'will live for a very long time yet'.
“There is still room to speak to the die-hard fans of performance cars,” says Sean Hanley, sales and marketing director at Toyota in Australia.
